Review: The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

Title: The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
Author: Katherine Howe
Source: Library
Rating: 9 out of 10

Summary: Connie is preparing to write her dissertation in colonial history when her mother asks her to take care of cleaning out her grandmother's home for sale. On her first night, Connie finds a key with a slip of paper inside that leads her on a chase to find the rarest of the rare: A real book of magic.


My Two Cents:


I loved this book. Like, a lot. I really enjoyed how Howe wove together the Salem witch trials and fiction to create a believable but fantastic story.  The moving back and forth between the distant past and 1991 was seamless and tied together with all the evidence Connie was finding at a given point in the story.

I generally liked Connie as a protagonist. The one thing I was how she was portrayed as never having a real interest in men until just the perfect one came along. Academic pursuits were more her style. I'm sure there are a lot of women in the world just like this, but I guess I seem to find a lot of them in literature.

Also, the whole ending of the book gets wrapped up in a really neat little bow, all in the last 30 pages or so. Everything just happens so quickly, then everything is over and then the book ends. Bam. I guess I just expected, since it took nearly 350 pages to get to the main climax of the story, that it would take more than 30 pages to resolve that problem. I would have liked to see more because the pace of the rest of the book was pitch-perfect.

All in all, this was a book I was very, very pleased with. I would recommend this to anyone who likes books about family mysteries (Like those by Kate Morton), anyone interested in the Salem witch trials or those who just like a good puzzle to put together in a book.

Review: The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory

Note: I read this book in 2011, after the publisher graciously sent me a copy (How could I pass up a free ARC of one of my favorite authors??), but haven't gotten around to blogging about it until now. In honor of today's paperback release, here's my review (Finally!)!


Title: The Lady of the Rivers


Author: Philippa Gregory

Pages: 435 (I have an ARC, so pages in the finished copy may be different)

Source: Publisher

Rating: 8/10

Summary (From front of ARC):


Descended from Melusina, the river goddess, Jacquetta has always had the gift of second sight. As a child visiting her uncle, she met his prisoner, Joan of Arc, and saw her own power reflected in the young woman accused of witchcraft. They shared the mystery of the tarot card of the wheel of fortune before Joan was taken to a horrific death at the hands of the English rulers of France. Jacquetta understands the danger for a woman who dares to dream.

Married to the Duke of Bedford, English regent of France, Jacquetta is introduced by him to a mysterious world of learning and alchemy. Her only friend in the great household is the duke's squire Richard Woodville, who is at her side when the duke's death leaves her a wealthy young widow. The two become lovers and marry in secret, returning to England to serve at the court of the young King Henry VI, where Jacquetta becomes a close and loyal friend to his new queen.

The Woodvilles soon achieve a place at the very heart of the Lancastrian court, though Jacquetta can sense the growing threat from the people of England and the danger of royal rivals. Not even their courage and loyalty can keep the House of Lancaster on the throne. Henry the king slides into a mysterious sleep; Margaret the queen turns to untrustworthy favorites for help; and Richard, Duke of York, threatens to overturn the whole kingdom for his rival dynasty.

Jacquetta fights for her king, her queen, and for her daughter Elizabeth, for whom Jacquetta can sense an extraordinary and unexpected future: a change of fortune, the throne of England, and the white rose of York.

My Two Cents:


I may be biased because I seem to just love anything Philippa Gregory writes (Her Elizabethan-era works especially), but this was another great one from her. It has her hallmark talent for character development and minute period detail.

Jacquetta was a really interesting character. I remember the brief glimpses Gregory gave of her in The White Queen, and was intrigued. I'm not very well-versed in this period in history, so I had no knowledge that Jacquetta existed prior to Gregory's introducing her. Boy, did those small peeks into Jacquetta not at all do her justice. She was strong and funny and fierce. And the fact that she lived with a huge secret, a secret that could have cost her and her family dearly, made her all the more real. I really want to look more into the historical person of Jacquetta and learn more about her.

I think my favorite part of this novel was the relationship and love between Jacquetta and Richard. Love stories are everywhere in literature, many of which tend toward the unrealistic when seen in the light of day. Not Jacquetta and Richard. Over the many years covered in the novel, they have their ups and downs and, though they don't spend a ton of time in the same place, run into some of the same day-to-day slog that all couples hit. Yet, they manage to maintain the spark and stay interesting and dynamic as a couple the entire time.

This is another great book in Gregory's Cousins' War series. A must-read for any Gregory or historical fiction fan.

Review: Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

Title: Cold Mountain

Author: Charles Frazier

Pages: 449

Source: Personal library

Rating: 8/10

Summary (From back of book):

Sorely wounded and fatally disillusioned in the fighting at Petersburg, Inman, a Confederate soldier, decides to walk back to his home in the Blue Ridge Mountains and to Ada, the woman he loved there years before. His trek across the disintegrating South brings him into intimate and sometimes lethal converse with slaves and marauders, bounty hunters and witches, both helpful and malign. At the same time, Ada is trying to revive her father's derelict farm and learn to survive in a world where the old certainties have been swept away.

My Two Cents:

I really like fiction set during the Civil War. In school, studying the 1860s always was one of my favorite things in history classes, so it would make sense that I enjoy fiction set during that era, even though I haven't read a lot of fiction set during this period.

One of my favorite things about this book was how the narration flips between the experiences of Inman as he attempts to return home from the war and Ada, who is trying to care for her father's failing farm. The dual narrative gave both perspectives of the war (Even though we hardly had any actual battle narration), so it wasn't all war and it wasn't all the struggle to survive. I liked that we got to see both sides of the experience.

I really liked all the main characters, too. It's not often that I like even the unsavory characters, like Stobrod, but even he had his fiddling obsession that kind of endeared him to me. At first, I wasn't sure I was going to like Ada. She seemed like nothing more than a damsel in distress who just kind of said, "Well, I don't know how to do any of this stuff around the farm, and I'm not really going to try." But, when Ruby comes along, Ada changes drastically and I really grew to like her.

My favorite parts of this book were Inman's interactions with various types of people in his travels. No matter what was doled out to him, he didn't become overly vicious or greedy; he simply treated people the way they treated him and he went out of his way to help those who needed the extra assistance. I also thought seeing the imagined experiences of people on the fringes of society added to the richness of the ambiance set out in this book.

I realize I'm probably about the last person on the planet to have read this book (And I haven't seen the movie, either!), but if there's someone out there who likes historical fiction and really interesting narratives who hasn't read this novel yet, give it a try.